SXSW 2012 PanelPicker now open, list of Panels from the Prairie

Unlike the old saying about picking friends’ noses, when it comes South by Southwest (SXSW) panels you can have it all – you can pick your friends, you can pick your own panels and you can pick your friends’ panels. With that delightful thought in mind, we wanted to call out the “Panels from the Prairie” submitted for consideration for SXSW 2012, a music, film and interactive festival held annually in March in Austin, Texas.

Opened for voting Monday afternoon, the SXSW PanelPicker is an online system that gives the community a 30 percent say in which panels and presentations will be selected – SXSW staff and advisory board account for the other 30 and 40 percent, respectively. Last year, SXSW Interactive had 935 sessions, which included panels, solo presentations, core conversations and salons.

Needless to say, with more than 3,000 submissions, PanelPicker can assist in getting one discovered.

So, now it’s time for action. If you’d like to support any of the panels below, visit panelpicker.sxsw.com, sign up for a free account and vote with a “thumbs up.” We also encourage you to leave comments about why you’d like to see the panel chosen or what you hope it addresses.

The PanelPicker is open for just over two weeks, closing Friday, September 2. Anyone is allowed to vote, from those who have attended or will be attending SXSW to those who just like to watch from the sidelines. The first round of panels is expected be announced in late October.

Without further ado, here are this year’s Panels from the Prairie and leading off the list is a panel spearheaded by me, one that you’ll hopefully find especially interesting.